June 2011

OpenOffice, LibreOffice and the Scarcity Fallacy

June 13, 2011

As you’ve probably heard, the proposal to move OpenOffice.org to the Apache Software Foundation was approved by a wide margin.  Volunteers interested in helping with this project continued to sign up, even during the 72-hour ballot, giving the project 87 members, as well as 8 experienced Apache  mentors, at the end of the vote.  The [...]

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Songs of the IBM

June 11, 2011

A few years ago there came into my possession a curious piece of IBM history, a thin paperback volume of 54 pages, privately printed, entitled “Songs of the IBM, 1937 Edition”.  The opening page lays out the context: For thirty-seven years, the gatherings and conventions of our IBM workers have expressed in happy songs the [...]

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Apache OpenOffice: How to Get Involved

June 3, 2011

A follow-up to my previous post on the  Apache Incubation proposal to move OpenOffice.org over to Apache and continue the project there.  In that post, I described how Apache projects are run via a meritocracy, that members gain additional rights and responsibilities based on the approval of their peers, etc.  But I have received a [...]

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An Invitation to Apache OpenOffice

June 1, 2011

As you have probably heard, Oracle has followed through with their earlier promise to “move OpenOffice.org to a purely community-based open source project.”  OpenOffice is moving to Apache. I’d like to offer you my own thoughts on this new opportunity and what it means.  I recommend also the insights of my colleagues Ed Brill and [...]

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